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For a Game, Spurrier Will Oppose His Gators

Steve Spurrier was a star player and a longtime coach for the Gators, who enter the game first in the SEC East.Credit
John Sommers Ii/Getty Images

Will Muschamp’s youth was wrapped in orange and blue. He would routinely make the short trek from his home to Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, dreaming of playing football for his hometown Gators. Even after walking on at Georgia and playing his college football there, he always kept a keen eye on his first love.

During the 1990s, when Muschamp was a player and later a young coach, he saw Florida turn into what he and many loyal Gators fans long felt the program could become: a national power. From 1990 to 2001, the Gators won 122 games, 6 Southeastern Conference titles and a national championship while producing a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Danny Wuerffel.

All of that success came under Steve Spurrier, a legend as a Heisman-winning quarterback and a title-capturing coach at Florida, whose bronze statue Muschamp passes each day on his way to work as the Gators’ current coach. And it is Spurrier who will lead No. 7 South Carolina (6-1, 4-1 SEC) to Florida (6-0, 5-0) on Saturday to face Muschamp and the team he has helped climb back to a No. 2 ranking.

“Obviously, Coach Spurrier winning a Heisman Trophy here and his 12 years as head coach here will probably never be repeated,” Muschamp told reporters this week. “He really put Florida on the map.”

And then there is Spurrier’s perspective. “Florida is always going to be my school,” he said at his weekly news conference. “I love Florida. My wife and my daughters and even Steve Jr. got a graduate degree from there. So we’re Gators, but we’re Gamecocks now. When my coaching days are over, I’ll be more of a Gator then. But I’m a Gamecock now.”

There will be little room for sentiment on Saturday, in a game that could have serious ramifications on the SEC title picture.

“I certainly hope the Gators finish second in the SEC East this year,” Spurrier said. “That would be a good finish for them, and hopefully we finish first.”

Photo

Will Muschamp will lead No. 2 Florida against Steve Spurrier and No. 7 South Carolina.Credit
Wade Payne/Associated Press

When he looks at Florida now, Spurrier sees a program far removed from the high-flying Fun ’n’ Gun passing offense he installed, which transformed the SEC. But it is one that is similar to South Carolina, where defense is the team’s strength.

“As we know, there are all kinds of ways to win,” he said. “The best way is to play outstanding defense, special teams and run the ball. There have been a lot of champions that ran the ball. You don’t have to throw the ball to win championships.”

He need only to look at Florida to see how true that is. The Gators have steadily risen in the national rankings with a passing offense that is ranked last in the SEC. When asked about that, Jeff Driskel, Florida’s sophomore quarterback, quickly responded: “We’re first in the East. That’s all that matters. We’re undefeated.”

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Against Vanderbilt last Saturday, Driskel passed for just 77 yards, but he ran for 177, a team record for a quarterback. Driskel has also protected the ball, throwing just one interception in 111 passing attempts.

And while South Carolina has a passing offense that is better, it is not by much.

The Gamecocks are ranked seventh in the 14-team SEC. Still, they are Spurrier’s team, which puts some extra meaning into Saturday’s game.

Though it has been more than a decade since Spurrier was Florida’s coach, he has not become a stranger to Gainesville. He usually visits at least once a year, if only to get his taxes done, often playing golf and eating at his favorite local restaurant, Napolatano’s. He maintains a residence there and a mansion-style home in Crescent Beach, about 60 miles to the east.

In 2006, he returned to be honored as part of the inaugural class on the stadium’s Ring of Honor, joining Emmitt Smith, Jack Youngblood and Wuerffel. He also attends an annual reunion, called the Silver Sixties, with former players from his generation, often saying that he and other classmates drape their arms across one another’s shoulders and sing the university’s pep song, “We Are the Boys From Old Florida.”

And it is that guise that his beloved Gators, and their fans, will be rooting against on Saturday.

A version of this article appears in print on October 19, 2012, on Page B16 of the New York edition with the headline: For a Game, Spurrier Will Oppose His Gators. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe